Let Girls Learn

Photo: USAID/ Bobby Neptune

Globally, 62 million girls are not in school. As a girl grows older the fight to get an education becomes even harder. Her family must be willing to pay school fees. She risks long, unsafe walks to school. She may be forced to marry. And she often lacks access to healthcare and the support she needs to learn.

All girls should have the opportunity to gain the skills, knowledge and confidence to break the cycle of poverty, raise healthier families, and help build their communities. Let Girls Learn is a U.S. government initiative to ensure adolescent girls get the education they deserve.

Here's How We're Helping Girls Around the

Four stories to show how we're increasing access to quality education, reducing barriers to success and empowering girls.

Photo: USAID

Liberia

Bringing Opportunity Through Education

Albertha was forced to quit school after becoming pregnant but she never lost the desire to learn. She and her son have faced many challenges but, now 19, she earns money by baking cookies and bread with her mother, and is continuing her education. She dreams of becoming a lawyer one day. Photo Credit: Neil Brandvold

Providing Meaningful Alternatives

USAID’s Advancing Youth Project provides increased access to quality alternative basic education services, including social development and leadership training for Liberian youth who are unschooled or out of school, and who have no or marginal literacy and numeracy skills. To date, the project has reached 500 adolescent girls like Albertha, and aims to reach 2,800 by the end of 2016. Photo Credit: Neil Brandvold

Increasing Attendance & Participation

The Girls Opportunities to Access Learning Plus program (GOAL) works to improve the enrollment, attendance and retention of 7,000 primary school girls across 60 schools through scholarship packages, school supplies, hygiene kits and parent-teacher capacity building. The program also includes mentoring, tutoring, gender responsiveness training, and library resources to all 60 schools. Photo Credit: Neil Brandvold

Helping Girls Learn More Effectively

The EQUAL Program aims to enhance learning outcomes for adolescent girls by building teacher capacity around literacy and numeracy skills, strengthening the ability of school administrators, and encouraging Parent Teacher Associations to support students and staff. The program is also piloting mother-tongue, English, and family literacy activities; addressing Gender Based violence in schools; and engaging the community identify ways to make schools safer for learning. Photo Credit: Neil Brandvold

In the developing world,
1 in 7 GIRLS is married before her 15th birthday

Girls with secondary schooling are up to
six times less likely to marry as children compared to girls who have little or no education

Photo: USAID

Bangladesh

Combatting Child Marriage

Rebena is in the 8th grade and wants to be a doctor when she grows up. As too often happens, Rebena’s parents arranged for her to be married without her consent. Rebena had learned about child marriage through USAID's Best School for Girls campaign. She immediately informed her teachers who visited her house and convinced her parents not to marry her. Rebena’s parents couldn't afford her education so the school offered to bring her back to school for free.

Promoting Girl-Friendly Environments

The Best Schools for Girls campaign promotes girl-friendly educational environments in communities with high child marriage rates. The campaign enlists students, parents, educators and government officials to build a growing network of schools competing for “Best School for Girls” certification. The goal is to increase the number of girls that stay in school, discourage them from dropping out for early marriage, and encourage community pledges against child marriage.

Improving Reproductive Health

Through a public-private partnership with GSMA and BRAC, USAID has developed a mobile tool to help adolescent girls develop English language skills in order to improve their employment prospects in the garment sector. This project has large scale potential as the garment sector employs more than 4 million people in Bangladesh (WTO, 2008), of which 90% of are women.

Harnessing Technology for Change

Through a public-private partnership with GSMA and BRAC, USAID has developed a mobile tool to help adolescent girls develop English language skills in order to improve their employment prospects in the garment sector. This project has large scale potential as the garment sector employs more than 4 million people in Bangladesh (WTO, 2008), of which 90% of are women.

Jordan

Empowering Girls to Speak Up

Hala, is in 8th grade and, like many of her peers, wishes she'd been born a boy. “Boys have more freedom than us. They can play football and get all the attention from families.” After watching the documentary "The Revolutionary Optimists", Hala decided to take action by providing girls in her community with more opportunities. She worked with friends and teachers to educate parents on why it's important to allow girls to play sports and join social and educational clubs.

Putting a Roof Over Her Head

Through the Jordan School Construction and Rehabilitation Project, USAID partnered with the Jordanian Ministry of Education to construct 28 new schools, 18 of which are girls schools. These new schools will provide quality education to adolescent girls through a more interactive curriculum and non-traditional teaching processes.

Keeping Her Safe

Through Women and Girls Lead Global, USAID supports the “I Have a Story” campaign which encourages Jordanian communities to broaden their understanding of gender-based violence, strengthen support systems for survivors, and reduce acceptance of this harmful practice. The campaign uses youth clubs, film screenings and media partnerships to educate, encourage meaningful dialogue, and promote attitude change.

Promoting and Protecting Human Rights

Through Sisterhood is Global Institute, USAID is supporting civil society to reduce the number of discriminatory national laws and regulations that affect women and girls in Jordan, specifically focusing on banning forced marriage under 18 and providing legal precedence to prosecute rape in the context of marriage.

Medical complications from pregnancy
and childbirth are the leading cause of
death among adolescent girls in
developing countries

Almost 60% FEWER GIRLS would become
pregnant under 17 years in sub-Saharan
Africa and South and West Asia if they all
had a secondary education

Photo: USAID

Malawi

Planning For the Future

Chimwemwe wants to teach. She finished her studies at Malawi’s Karonga Teacher Training College and hopes to get a school post soon and start her career. To help plan for her future, Chimwemwe is taking action in the present by protecting herself from unplanned pregnancy. She went to Tunza Clinic, which provides youth-friendly health services, for an intrauterine contraceptive device. Chimwemwe is ready to realize her dreams of a career and, when she's ready, a family.

Encouraging Healthy Behavior

The Girls Empowerment through Education and Health Activity (ASPIRE) works to improve education and health outcomes for over 125,000 adolescent girls by improving the reading skills of girls; providing clean water, toilet facilities, and feminine hygiene products; encouraging the adoption of positive health behaviors, including raising awareness about HIV/AIDS and family planning; and training teachers, parents, and communities on how to best to support girls education.

Working Toward an AIDS-Free Generation

USAID's One Community project will provide integrated community based prevention, care, and services for priority populations such as vulnerable children, adolescent girls and young women in Southern Malawi. The Determined, Resilient, Empowered, AIDS-free, Mentored, and Safe Initiative (DREAMS) is a public-private partnership between PEPFAR, the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, and the Nike Foundation to reduce HIV among adolescent girls and young women in priority districts.

Building Strong Families

Through the Evidence to Action project, USAID works to reach first time adolescent parents for healthy timing and spacing of pregnancy, as well as strengthening models for reproductive health, family planning, and maternal and child health through improved service delivery and sustainable scale-up throughout West and East Africa.